CONTINUATION OF HOME LIFE. 35 



who considers it not only a pleasure, but a duty to do all he can 

 for science. I mentioned to him thy Filices Asiatics, and have 

 begged of him to attack the mountains. As I do not know 

 him personally, the matter was conducted by one of my cousins 

 in Cork, who holds out hope of his being useful to us. I have 

 always good hope when pleasure and duty pull together. The 

 work is then pretty sure of being well done. We have very 

 warm weather ; and while I write I am much annoyed by swarms 

 of small moths (I know not what species), which are flying 

 over my paper and round the candle. Such Aveather awakens 

 my longing for Peru or Chili, which, although the prospect be 

 distant, I am not without hope of one day seeing." 



To the Same. 



Elmfield, County Down, September 9th. 

 I have been travelling and paying a visit to some relatives, 

 in company with my father and sister. To-morrow I go to 

 Briansford (the fine domain of Lord Roden), situated among the 

 Mourne Mountains, and near the coast. From thence to Bel- 

 fast, where I join W. H. P. in a tour to the Causeway. We 

 then mean to cross to Glasgow, and take a sail up Loch 

 Lomond, which we missed on our last tour. I hope to cross to 

 Helensburg on our way up the Clyde, and that Mrs. Hooker 

 may find me a little improved in loquacity, though I fear I 

 have yet much to learn in this, as in other sciences. She will 

 perhaps remember having given me a lecture on the subject, 

 which I assure her has been often thought of when I found 

 myself falling into silence and absence in company, and I have 

 endeavoured with some success to rally. It is very sad, but I 

 fear I shall always be more or less foolish in this matter. 



29th September he writes — " It is now, I think, pretty evident 

 to my brothers that I shall never make a merchant. I have been 

 five years in the office, and yet, in very simple matters, I am 

 almost as ignorant as when I entered it. To be sure, I have 

 not been kept very closely at work, having generally had a 

 few months of recreation in the summer ; nevertheless, I have 

 had ample time to acquire a knowledge of business. But 

 somehow, from a distaste to intercourse with the ' vulgus ' — in 

 the way of buying and selling— I am sadly deficient in mercan- 

 tile tact." 



d 2 



